US Court Allows Law Banning Guns In Most Public Places In California Days After District Judge Blocked It

The three-judge panel issued an administrative stay temporarily putting the injunction on hold until a different panel could consider staying the lower-court judge's order for even longer.

A United States federal appeals court has cleared the way for a California law banning the concealed carry of guns in most public places and will take effect On January 1, 2024, as the panel put on hold a district judge's ruling declaring the measure unconstitutional, according to a report in CNN.

The 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals suspended a Dec. 20 injunction issued by a judge who called the new law "sweeping, repugnant to the Second Amendment, and openly defiant of the Supreme Court," and concluded the Democratic-led state's law violated the right of citizens to keep and bear arms under the US Constitution's Second Amendment, quoted Reuters.

The law, Senate Bill 2, further restricts people from having concealed guns at privately owned commercial establishments that are open to the public, unless the business's operator posts a sign explicitly saying it allows license holders to carry guns on their property.

Now, on Saturday, the three-judge panel issued an administrative stay temporarily putting the injunction on hold until a different 9th Circuit panel could consider staying the lower-court judge's order for even longer while the litigation plays out.

"This ruling will allow California's common-sense gun laws to remain in place while we appeal the district court's dangerous ruling," California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said in a statement, as quoted by Reuters.

The ruling hints at a new test to assess the constitutionality of gun laws by holding they must be "consistent with the nation's historical tradition of firearm regulation."

What Does The Law Say?

The law, which was enacted in September after a landmark ruling in June 2022 by the conservative-majority US Supreme Court expanded gun rights across the US.

The top court had struck down New York's strict gun permit regime and for the first time declared that the right to keep and bear arms under the Second Amendment protects a person's right to carry a handgun in public for self-defense, according to a Reuters report.

California is among the places that have some of the strictest gun control laws in the United States, and with similar laws as New York. However, following the US Supreme Court's decision moved to modify its firearms regulations.

As per the report, under the new law, set to be effective from Monday, people could not carry concealed guns in 26 categories of "sensitive places" including hospitals, playgrounds, stadiums, zoos and places of worship, regardless of whether they had permits to carry concealed weapons.